Printing process



May 21,1929. 7 U w cK 1,714,265

' PRINTING PROCESS Filed Ma 28, 1927 ATTORNEYS Patented May 21, 1929.

UNITED STATES 1,714,265 PATENT OFFICE.

IRVING GURWICK, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., ASSIGNOR To CELLOPHANE PRINTING COR- ronarron, on NEW YORK, N. Y.,

A CORPORATION 01 NEW YORK.

PRINTING PROCESS.

Application filed May 28,

This invention relates to a printing process and more particularly to a method of printing cellophane, and has special refer ence to the provision of a method of printing cellophane whereby a lustrous and uniform printin impression is obtained without liability of offsetting.

lVhile the invention as disclosed in this application is shown applied to the making of bags or envelopes and comprises in the exemplified showing the combination of steps of printing with. thesteps of pasting and making of bags or envelopes, it will become obvious as the description of the process proceeds, that the steps which go to the printing of the bag or envelope as distinguished from the steps which I direct to the making of the bag are of general application in themselves in the art of printing sheet material. This phase of the invention, namely, the. process of printing, which is of general application, may be utilized with any flexible material that comes in sheet form and that is generally used in printin processes.

When applied to the making of bags, the object of the present invention includes the application of the printing steps to the manufacture of bags in which the sealed edges of -the bag have no overlapping portions. The front and back of the bag or envelope are both of the same width and sealing is accomplished by applying a layer of adhesive on one of the adjacent surfaces of the front and back along a narrow portion thereof immediately adjacent the sealing edges. This method of bag manufacture is described and broadly claimed in my copending application Serial No. 204,107 filed July 7, 1927.

One phase of the invention disclosed in this method of bag manufacture lies in the manher of sealing two bodies of sheet material so as to provide a bag or envelope of the kind described. The process of making the bag or envelope as thus conceived has particular application in the making of bags or envelopes or similar containers out of thin, transparent sheet material such as cellophane. Cellophane is a pure wood pulp product produced in sheet form in a variety of thickness and colors and is used extensively as a wrapper or container for various products in the retail trade. In its most popular form it is colorless and transparent and very thin, its thickness varying from approximately one thousandth of an inch to seven 1927. Serial No. 194,932.

thousandths of an inch. One of the advantages which flow from the use of cellophane is that the consuming public may observe the product or package in its life-like reality. It is therefore the object to provide a bag or envelope which will not in any sense mar the appearance of the article contained therein. When any of the old methods of making bags .or envelopes are applied to cellophane, the sealing edges of the bag or envelope mar the appearance of the article displayed therein. In addition to this, the making of bags or envelopes out of cellophane involves other difficulties such as the wrinkling of the material along the lines where the portions of the bag or envelope are sealed. It is therefore the object of the invention. to make the bag or envelope in such a manner that the above difficulties are avoided and the resultant bag or envelope may be used for displaying the articles contained therein without marring the appearance of the article.

One of the objects of the present invention is to provide a bag or envelope of this nature made of cellophane or similar material having printed insignia thereon. Cellophane or similar materials have a highly lustrous appearance. In the making of the present printed bag or envelope, this highly lustrous appearance is taken advantage of to lend the printed matter on the envelope a lustrous and attractive appearance. This is accomplished by applying the printed negative impressions on the inner face of the front of the bag or envelope. The transparency of the cellophane makes the printed matter visible on the front of the bag or envelope, and lends the printed matter a lustrous and attractive appearance, regardless of the type of ink utilized.

The printing of the material of this type involves a good many difliculties and it is the object of the present invention to provide a printing process which overcomes these difficulties. When cellophane is printed, particularly when designs having substantial masses or areas of ink are applied to the material, difliculty has been experienced heretofore due to the offsetting of the inked impressions. This difficulty is overcome in the present invention by applying a drying powder to the printed surface immediately after the impression is made by the printing process, and by then removing the excess powder from the printed impression. While I have found that the same is permitted to age to'a bone dry condition before it is put through the powder removing process. I have foundthat the drying may be accomplished under atmospheric conditions by merely permitting the printed and powdered sheet material to age for a period of from 6 to 24. hours. I have also found that after the sheet material has been printed and powdered the same may be rolled into a reel without causing any ofisetting and the ageing may take place with the web on the reel.

After ageing the web is in condition to be used in the ba making process which has.

been outlined a ove and will be described in greater detail hereinafter.

Others objects of the invention will become apparent from the description and from the drawings, in which Fig. 1 is a diagrammatic illustration of the printing process,

Fig. 2 is a diagrammatic illustration of the bag making process,

Fig. 3 is a detailed showing more clearly illustrating the steps involved in the making of the bag or envelope,

Fig. 4 illustrates the roll used for applying adhesive,

F ig. 5 is a back view of the resulting bag or envelope, and

Fig. 6 is a front view thereof.

Referring to the printing process illustrated in Fig. 1, 10 is a web of cellophane or other thin transparent sheet material which is fed intermittently off the reel 11 by the feed and guide rollers 12 and 13. The web is fed over the stationary bed 17 of a printing press where the face 18 of the web 10 receives negative printed impressions b the intermittent operation of the printing p ate 19. The operation of the plate 19 is timed with the feeding of the webs in such a manner that the impression is applied to the web 17 during the hiatus in the feeding of the web. The printing form 19 is in the form of a negative of the printed matter and being applied to the face 18 of the web 10 which subsequently becomes the inner face of the front of the bag or envelope, the printed matter takes on the appearance of a positive when observed from the front of the bag or envelope. This is clearly illustrated in Figs. 5 and 6 where the printed insignia are shown in the negative form in Fig. 5 and in the positive form in Fig. 6.

After having received the printed impression, the web 10 passes thf'ough a bath of drying powder 20 which is yieldingly applied to the printed face of the web and is rolled onto the reel 12, the powder 20 serving to prevent any offsetting of the printed impressions as the reel is formed. The reel is now stored for a period of from 6 to 24 hours, or more if desired, which causes the printed impressions to become bone dry.

I have found that when the printed face of the web is passed through the powder bath 20 it is desirable that an excess of powder be caused to adhere to the printed impressions and generally to the printed face. of the web. The excess amount of powder is desirable for the purpose of making it possible to immediately roll the web into a reel form without causing any off-setting of the printed surfaces, and also to make it possible for the printed matter to dry thoroughly within a very short period. I have described that by storing the reel having the excess amount of powder on its printed face for a period of several hours as indicated above, the printed matter becomes bone dry and the excess powder may then be removed, leaving a lustrous and uniform printed impression. There the web is immediately put through the excess powder removing step, with the ageing step eliminated, the step of removing the excess powder usually results in some of the ink being removed with the consequence that the printed impressions are not always uniform and the printing does not give the lustrous and attractive appearance sought. Where the ageing step is not utilized the step of removing the excessive powder becomes a delicate operation and frequently a troublesome operation. When the printed web is permitted to age, however; it may be subjected to quite violent abrasive action without causing any injury to the printed surface or impression.

Fig. 2 is a diagrammatic illustration of a process in which the invention is applied to the making of bags or envelopes. The reel 21 may be the same as the reel 12 which had previously been put through the printing process shown in Fig. 1 and was permitted to age until the printed matter thereon was bone dry. The reel 21 is fed simultaneously with the reel 22 by the rotation of the feeding and guide rollers 23, 24 and 25. The reel 21 may be considered as feeding theweb 10 which had been previously put through the printing process shown in Fig. 1 on which the face 18 thereof had a plurality of printed negative impressions to which an excessive amount of drying powder had been applied. Before the web 10 comes in contact with the web 26 a rotating brush 40 removes the excess drying powder from the printed face 18 of the web 10. The powder dust formed by this abrasive process is removed by suction through the flue 41.

In the present process no folding or overlapping of any sort takes place. The entire process comprises the simple steps of applying adhesive to a flat and broad surface of a web of material, joining said web with another web by the aid of said adhesive, and cuttudinally into two strips, thus forming two.

sealed edges in one operation. The manner in which these steps are accomplished will become apparent from a further and detailed description of the process.

The web 26 is fed simultaneously with the web 10. The adhesive 42 in the bath 43 is transferred by means of the transfer rolls 31 to the roller 32. The roller 32 is illustrated in Fig. 4 and as shown is provided with a raised circular ridge 27 disposed substantially half way intermediate its length and is additionally provided with a longitudinal ridge 28. The adhesive is therefore applied to the roll 32 only on the surface of the ridges 27 and 28. The web 26 passing between the roll 32 and one of the feeding rolls 25 receives adhesive in the manner clearly shown in Fig. 3. The continuous contact of the ridge 27 with the'web 26 applies a continuous longitudinal layer of adhesive 29 of suitable width to the inner face of the web 26. The ridge 28 applies the layers of adhesive 30 along lines disposed transversely of the web 26.

After having the adhesive applied thereto, the web 26 is superposed over the web 10 and the two webs are caused to adhere along the lines of adhesive and are thereafter fed together as one continuous web. In this form the two webs are cut longitudinally by'the rotating circular knife 31 along the longitudinal line which substantially bisects the layer of adhesive 29, and are then cut by the knife 32. along the transverse lines of adhesive substantially bisecting the layers 30. The product resulting from these two cutting operations is illustrated in Fig. 3 showing in perspective two bags or envelopes 33 and 34, each being provided with the flaps 16. These bags or envelopes are stacked at 35 as shown in Fig. 2.

In the present embodiment of the invention it is desired to make bags or envelopes which are provided with flaps 16. For this reason the web 10 which goes to make the front of the bag or envelope having the printed insignia thereon is wider than-the web 26 by an amount substantially equal to twice the depth of the flaps 16. It is obvious, however, that if it is desired to make envelopes or bags having no flaps the two webs 10 and 26 may be of the same width.

In the bag making process the reel 22 and the web 26 are so disposed with relation to the web 10 that when the web 26 is superposed on the web 10 it will be equally spaced from the longitudinal edges of thelatter to provide for the flaps 16 of the bags or envelopes.

While as shown, the roll 32 is provided with one longitudinal ridge 28 to apply the transverse layers of adhesive 30, it is obvious that if desired this. roll may be provided with a plurality of such ridges. The size of the roll is selected in accordance with the width of the envelope desired. If it is desired to make a wider bag or envelope, a larger roll may be used, namely a roll hav ing a circumference equal to the width of the bag or envelope. Where a roll having a plurality of ridges 28 is used, such ridges must be spaced from each other a distance equal to the width of the bag or envelope desired.

As shown in the drawings the roll 32 is provided with one circumferential ridge 27 disposed approximately midway of the length of the roll. This roll is so designed for the reason that in the present embodiment of the invention it is desired to make two sets of bags or envelopes of the same length. If, however, it should be desired to make sets of envelopes or bags differing in lengths, the ridge 27 may be so placed circumferentially of the roll 32 and the cutting knife 31 may be so dispose-d as to bring about the desired end; Moreover, it will be understood that if it is desired to make more than two sets of envelopes, the roll 32 may be designed to accomplish that end, and if necessary, a plurality of cutters 31 may be'provided. The same process may also be utilized for making only one set of bags or envelopes by disposing the ridge 27 at one end of the ridge 28 and by properly disposing the web 26 with relation to the web 10.

The resulting product shown in Figs. 5 and 6 is a bag or envelope having both its front and back face made of a continuous sheet of transparent material and having no overlapped portions to mar its appearance or to interfere in any way with the view of the articles contained in the bag or envelope.

It will be apparent that while I have shown and described my invention in the preferred form, many changes and modifications may be made in the structure disclosed without departing from the spirit of the invention, defined in the following claims.

I claim:

1. The method of printing on thin transparent sheet material comprising the steps of printing a negative impression on one face of said material, applying a drying powder to said impression, permitting the same to age feeding intermittently a web of cellophane,

printing a series of negative impressions on one face of said web, applying a dr ing powder to said impressions, rolling sai web into a reel, permitting the same to age until the impression is dry, and removing the excess powder.

3. The method of'printing on sheet material comprising the steps of printing an ink impression on said material, applying a drying powder to said impression, permitting the same to age until the impression is dry and thereafter removing the excess powder from the printed impression;

4. The method of printin on sheet material comprising the steps 0 feeding a web of material intermittently, printing a series of impressions on said web, applying a drying powder to said impressions, rolling said web into a reel, permitting the same to age until the impression is bone dry and thereafter removing the excess powder from the printed material intermittently, printing a series of impressions on said web, applying a drying powder to said impressions, rolling said web into a reel, permitting the same to age until the impression is bone dry, then unreeling said web, brushing the excess powder from the printed impression and cutting said web into individual sheets.

7. The method of printing on cellophane sheet material comprising the steps of feeding a web of cellophane material intermittent- 1y, printing a series of impressions on said web, applying a drying powder to said impressions, rolling said web into a reel, permitting the same to age until the impression is bone dry and thereafter removing the excess powder from the printed impressions.

8. The method of printing on cellophane sheet material comprising the steps of making a printed negative impression thereon, applying a drying powder to said impression, and removing the excesspowder.

9. The method of printing on thin transparent sheet material comprising the steps of intermittently feeding a continuous web of said material, applying negative printed impressions to said web, passing said web through a bath of drying powder, and removing the excess powder.

10. The method of printing on flexible thin transparent sheet material comprising the steps of making a printed negative impression thereon, applying a drying powder to said impression and removing the excessive powder.

Signed at New York in the county of New York and State of New York this 26th day of May, A. D.. 1927.

IRVING GURWICK. 

